NOTE: This is a long article, about 2,130 words. It covers some mid-century political history in New York City, as well as discussing values and ethical standards. I suggest you print it out, and, if you have time, read it over the weekend when you are in a comfortable position. I am interested in your thoughts on the subject, and would be happy to publish them if you wish, and they are fit to print.

De Sapio Combined Talent and Ambition
With Desire for Power and Dirty Money.

By Henry J. Stern
July 30, 2004

Carmine Gerard De Sapio, the man who came to symbolize Tammany Hall, died Tuesday at 95. He had long outlived his power and importance as a leader. At the end what was left was the image, the dignity, the memories, and the dark glasses.

The obituaries have been numerous, fully justified by his prominence in New York's political history. (See the Times, which noted his passing on page A1, with a valuable in-depth obituary by Jonathan Kandell on page C12 and an editorial observer appreciation by political reporter Francis X. Clines on A18, and the News, which carried an article by Owen Moritz and a column by Richard Schwartz).
 
At the peak of his power in the mid-1950s, De Sapio had elected a mayor, Robert F. Wagner, a governor, Averell Harriman, and had become a national figure in Democratic politics. No political leader since has come close to his stature; indeed, party officials have declined sharply in influence, as the result of open primaries, free-spending candidates, and voters' increased willingness to cross party lines.

It has been widely stated that Carmine De Sapio was brilliant and corrupt, but what does that mean? His abilities were twofold: one, in instilling respect and fear of himself in others in the style of a natural leader of an organization, whether a business, criminal, military or religious group. A man of modest origins, his rise to power and influence was remarkable, and represented a breakthrough by Italian-Americans into a political hierarchy dominated for a century by Irish-Americans.
 
His second gift was that of generally good judgment. He joined with late Bronx County Democratic Leader Edward J. Flynn (from whose name 'in like Flynn' may have been coined — some say it was Errol Flynn, the actor, which would have been appropriate in its own way). He and Flynn supported Robert F. Wagner, at the time borough president of Manhattan, who challenged the incumbent, Vincent R. Impellitteri, in the 1953 Democratic primary. Flynn died on August 18, 1953 on a visit to Ireland, leaving De Sapio the surviving Wagnerian.

The Democratic bosses in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island had supported the reelection of 'Impy,' as the press called him. Impellitteri was an accidental mayor, selected as the Democratic candidate for City Council president in 1945, as a running mate for William O'Dwyer, the corrupt Kings County district attorney, and Lazarus Joseph of the Bronx. Since the O'Dwyer ticket consisted of an Irishman from Brooklyn and a Jew from the Bronx, an Italian from Manhattan was needed for geographical and ethnic balance. The problem was, there were no reputable, prominent Italians who wanted to run. So, it is said, the leaders went through the Green Book (the city's official directory) until they found a lower court judge from Manhattan named Vincent R. Impellitteri. He was nominated, duly elected in 1945, and re-elected in 1949, when O'Dwyer handily defeated Newbold Morris, the Republican-Liberal candidate.

In 1950, O'Dwyer, pursued by investigators, was suddenly appointed by President Truman as ambassador to Mexico, where he would be beyond the reach of officials who wanted his public testimony in several matters on which he preferred not to speak. He did not return to the City of New York for eleven years, long after his term as ambassador had ended. Under the City Charter, when O'Dwyer resigned, City Council President Impellitteri became acting mayor. Rebuffed by Democratic leaders, Impy ran as the Experience Party candidate in the 1950 mayoral election, and defeated Ferdinand Pecora, a highly regarded attorney and investigator who was the Democrat-Liberal in the race. His election was a populist uprising against the political system.

Impy was supposed to be a new light in local politics, but his administration was less than mediocre. The real mayor was Robert Moses, insofar as capital projects were concerned. The 1950 race has been described as a battle between mafia families, with Tommy "Three Finger Brown" of the Lucchese group with Impy, while other families were said to have sided with Pecora.

In supporting Wagner in 1953, De Sapio became the most influential county leader in the city. He parlayed this success into choosing the Democratic candidate for governor in 1954, the multi-millionaire heir to the Union Pacific fortune, Averell Harriman, who had been ambassador to the Soviet Union under President Roosevelt. De Sapio convinced or compelled Harriman's rival, West Side Congressman Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., to run instead for attorney general, a job for which he was defeated by then-Washington Heights Congressman Jacob K. Javits.

Now De Sapio was on top of the world. A grateful Harriman named him secretary of state of New York (a job whose title belies its relatively modest importance). Randy Daniels holds it today.

In 1956, when Adlai Stevenson threw open the Democratic competition for the vice presidential nomination, De Sapio supported the 39-year-old senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. On the floor, Kennedy lost the nomination narrowly to Senator Estes Kefauver, a crime investigator from Tennessee. Stevenson and Kefauver were routed in November by the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket.

In politics, even gifted leaders make enemies, and in rejecting Congressman Roosevelt's bid for governor, he did contract the ill will of the candidate's mother, a woman named Eleanor. Seven years later, as luck would have it, she and former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, leaders of the Democratic reform movement, campaigned in Greenwich Village against De Sapio, who in turn lost his district leadership, the base of his political power.

The turning point for De Sapio was 1958, when he used his domination of the New York State Democratic Party machinery to nominate District Attorney Frank S. Hogan for the United States Senate. Elder statesman in the party had wanted a reformer with a background in national or world affairs to be the party's candidate for this high office. De Sapio insisted on Hogan, who was a very good district attorney, honest and impartial, one of the original Dewey team.

It is widely assumed that the reason De Sapio supported Hogan was to kick him upstairs to the Senate, so De Sapio could choose the new DA for New York County. That was more important to him than becoming senator — the district attorney had the power to choose over a hundred assistants. Hogan selected the lawyers who worked in his office on the merits, without regard to politics (other district attorneys did not, some even having part-time assistants who also practiced law). The DA also has the power to decide whether to prosecute criminal cases, and whom to indict, authority that meant a great deal to someone in De Sapio's line of work.

The Hogan nomination displeased Mayor Wagner, whose father had been a United States senator for 27 years and who himself had lost for the Senate to Jacob Javits in the 1956 Eisenhower landslide. The demonstration of raw power at the Democratic state convention (which, at the time, before the era of direct primaries, decided who the party's candidate would be) led to the growth of the anti-De Sapio Democratic reform movement. The reformers ran a candidate against De Sapio in the Village in 1959, but were defeated.

The political landscape shifted substantially when Mayor Wagner broke with De Sapio to seek a third term. In 1961, all five Democratic leaders supported a ticket led by State Comptroller Arthur Levitt. Wagner chose two civil servants, Paul Screvane and Abraham Beame, to run with him. The Wagner team won decisively, and De Sapio's era of party dominance effectively ended.

Without Wagner on the ticket against him, De Sapio hoped for a comeback in the district leader primary in Greenwich Village in 1963. He had many supporters in the Village, his political base, people whomhe had helped over the years. He was counting on the people who had cheered him when he was in power.

Again opposed by Governor Lehman (Mrs. Roosevelt had died in 1962), De Sapio lost narrowly (by 41 votes) to a 38-year old lawyer, Edward I. Koch. De Sapio took the case to court, and the election was thrown out by the judges for irregularities. In every primary, some people vote who are not registered in the party, and, through other innocent (or guilty) errors, votes can be invalidated. The court ordered a rerun for primary day, 1964. This time Koch won by 164 votes, a margin that could withstand challenge.
 
Later in his career, with a Republican mayor in office, De Sapio was convicted of bribing a city commissioner, James Marcus, in connection with the awarding of contracts. He went to jail for a year and a half, but even that did not affect the dignity and grace with which he comported himself, or the respect he received from those who looked up to him.
 
When we say in 2004 that De Sapio was corrupt, what does that mean? Would his actions be considered legitimate today? What is corruption?
 
The standard we offer for corruption is that a person who takes money or other valuable objects (e.g. a vacation home) in return for influencing decisions made by the government or by a political party is corrupt. When a judicial nominee is compelled to pay ostensibly for a campaign, but the money goes into the pockets of a political leader, that is corrupt. If a builder seeking a variance at the Board of Standards and Appeals, or a zoning decision by the City Planning Commission, must pay for it under the table, that is corrupt. When a contractor must pay off before being awarded a city contract, even if he is the low bidder, that is corrupt. When anyone pays to influence a political decision so he can receive financial gain, that is corrupt. Whether the money goes to an individual directly or through a committee in the guise of repaying loans to a political campaign, that transaction is corrupt.

There are shadings in this area, as there are in many others. People give to political campaigns in the hopes of winning goodwill for themselves or the economic interests they represent. No one can be so unrealistic as to ban all self-interested political contributions — then only millionaires could run for office

The bottom line is that if you are in public service, in an elected or appointed capacity, you should live on your salary, investments, private funds and legitimate, approved outside employment. You cannot supplement your income with gifts from people whose interests you affect, bribes, rebates, kickbacks or any other form of payment for anything you have done, or not done, at work, or anything you have influenced anyone else to do or not to do.

Corruption was rampant in 19th century New York with Boss Tweed and numerous others. It was a political way of life. In the 20th century, we had Tammany boss Charlie Murphy (who retired to France), Mayors Jimmy Walker and William O'Dwyer, and Donald Manes, along with many lesser figures. Mayors like LaGuardia, Lindsay, Koch and Giuliani were considered exceptions, but there has been lower-level wrongdoing in all administrations. Corruption and official misconduct continue in the 21st century by people who are yet to be caught (Wayne Barrett and Tom Robbins can give you some good leads). Another problem is our tolerance of corrupt, colorful characters, or people who profess to deliver better services with some roughness.

My sense is that De Sapio lived by the code he grew up with in Little Italy in lower Manhattan. He did not regard society's legal norms as binding on himself. He had a sense of honor and fairness, and he was what used to be called a man of distinction. He was associated with the political branch of the underworld. And when he was in power, he was untouchable. Only in his latter days did he fall victim to the prosecutors he had so long eluded. De Sapio was no Robin Hood, but he was no ordinary hood. On balance, New York City is better off for his transit through power in the 1950's. He had more character than the hypocrites who fawned on him when he was in power, and abandoned him when he was not.

In the end, Carmine De Sapio will be remembered for his personal leadership skills, for the reforms he supported, including direct election of district leaders, and for the candidates like Mayor Wagner whom he sponsored. In the end, his reforms and his over-reaching combined to topple him, but perhaps like Mikhail Gorbachev, he made an important contribution in helping to open a closed system. We could use an honest person with De Sapio's political skills today to straighten out our State Legislature, which operates with the chicanery and the hypocrisy — but not the efficiency — of a well-organized political machine.